A welcome mat must be dropped at Nebraska’s front door step to tell the nation our state is a place for all people; it is imperative that LGBT people have legal protections and a fair chance to reach their goals and desires, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Lincoln Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks was one of several senators
to address a crowd of several hundred gay rights supporters in the
Capitol Rotunda. She referred to a proposal that would add sexual
orientation and gender identity to other characteristics, like race and
religion, that could not be used to discriminate in hiring or keeping
employees. Pansing Brooks said with businesses needing more workers, not
having such protections doesn’t make sense. "For us as a state to
discriminate and limit part of the working pool that’s available to us
is purely shortsighted and stupid," she said, to laughter and applause. Another
bill would prohibit the state Department of Health and Human Services
from discriminating based on sexual orientation or gender identity when
placing state wards in out-of-home care. A third would allow two people,
regardless of their marital status, to adopt children. Similar bills
have been unsuccessful in the past, but Lincoln Sen. Adam Morfeld,
introducer of the employment bill, said he thinks this year will be
different. "I think that this issue’s time has come. Personally, I think
it’s past, in the sense of we should have taken care of this a long
time ago. But I think the issue’s time has come and I think the crowd
that we see in the Capitol here tonight (sic) displays that," Morfeld
said after the lunchtime gathering.

Saddle Creek and Slowdown support the workplace equality legislation
because it mirrors our commitment to providing a diverse, creative and
vibrant community in which everyone feels open and able to focus on
their jobs.

Maynard (Bob "Gilligan's Island" Denver) slyly flashes a nipple to the CBS eye while trying to talk his best buddy Dobie Gillis (Dwayne Hick­man) into taking off all his clothes. Whoever said 1950s television was a vast waste­land obviously didn't know where to look.